Does anyone else get the same sense of heartbreak...?

... when you get promoted but realise your star player in the old division cannot hack it at the next level. You want them to so badly but it just doesn't happen.

After 10 years of trying I have got Leganes into Liga adelante and my warhorse of a striker Juan Alonso, so prolific for me before, looks woeful and has 0 in 15. I'm going to give him some grace until the transfer window (i kind of have to really) and then i'm torn. I'm obviously going to spend my 2,500pound budget on someone, anyone... but do i keep him on for old times sake (5 years of service - only 24 years old?) and loan him to teams in need or do i coldly cut the cord and cast him into a bleak netherworld of lower league inescapable Spanish 3rd tier football?

Help!

It's hard not to get attached to some players, but in the end. You have to cut him lose, I think.

My problem is the player be a favourite of the fans. So if I sack him they fans will hate me xD

Keep him as a squad player. Give him games in cups. Sub him when games are already won.

In moving from the 2nd league to the top league, you gotta realize you're going to have to get rid to compete.

Do what Mangelito said tho

Nah, send him back to the gutter, where he belongs.

I know exactly what you mean. I've done a long term game with Lowestoft, we're finally Prem and Champions League holders in the late 2020s, I've got both Victor Palsson and Adam Davies who have been at the club for 15 years or so (Palsson was actually sold from under my nose by the board while we were in League One, but I brought him back once we made the Prem - net cost circa £4m, thanks board). Neither player are good enough for my side, but I don't want to lose them. Every month I tell them they'd make great coaches and they've finally come around to my way of thinking. They'll now be part of my backroom staff forever.

It's not the same, but I felt genuinely heartbroken yesterday when Steven Gerrard retired from my Liverpool game aged 37. I was trying to make him Liverpool's record appearance holder, but he retired 72 games short of the target.

When trying to take a team from the bottom to the top of any countries league system it easy to become attached to your players as you tend to keep the same ones for some time (usually budget constraints or maybe because they are good at that level) but there comes a time when you just have to let them go.

You have to weigh up the choices, after getting Leganes into Liga adelante do you want to stay there or keep the guy that got you there but won't keep you there? To stay there will probably mean you need to get rid of the dead wood....

Personally when I play the lower league management game I only ever sign players on 1 year contracts, if I get promoted and they don't make the cut they go. If they are good enough for the next level they stay - simple!

Once I get establlished in the top leagues then I can mess about bringing people through the academy etc

Basically be ruthless to get to the top (works in real life too) then once your there you can have the choice of bringing a "project"through the ranks, then you can get sentimental

I felt a bit sad letting to even this David Mooney guy, who I got way back in BSP or so, and even though he was never prolific, he had a good level of assists, and while he missed a lot, his performance was fair. He did score some important goals and he loved the team and fans. The worst thing was, when I transfer listed him at the age of 31 in the championship he was angry at me, I tried to tell him to just be professional and let it go, but he wouldn't, he was hurt, and he hated me from then on, for forcing him out of his favourite club. When he left, he was relieved to get away from me.

It was a sad parting, but I had to let him go.

Another player I have, Laurance Gaughan is a yougish defender, been my captain for a couple of seasons, but I've not been able to give him first team football regularly in the league 1 or championship because I have better central defenders, and even though I still have him as vice-captain and try to put him on when I can, he's requested a transfter. I find this sad, because he's still fairly young and I felt he could improve, and he's been such a good service to us, perhaps even from as far back as the BSS, I don't recall exactly.

I didn't feel sad to lose Oliver Nicholas though, a central defender who's also an Eitrea international, he served me very well and I loved seeing his development from a young DC to a fairly decent one, better than gaughan even, from struggling to break into the Eitrea tream despite it being full of grey players, to becoming a regular. Yet when the transfer came, it just seemed the right time. We'd just been promoted to the championship and I'd brought in a fantastic young defender who was already better than Nicholas and 5 years younger and a bid came in from the now-league 1 Derby, I haggled it up for 66k as was wary to let him go, they accepted, and I just thought it was a sign it was time for him to go - he'd already asked for more first team football, it was just right to let him go. He did go, and while he was originally considered a backup for them, he worked his way into the first team, partially aided by some departures from Derby and he's doing pretty good. I feel happy for him, he's found life in a large club, one that can attract far bigger crowds than my own, and he's doing well.

So there's some departures I like, some I see parting with some sorrow.

I had to let go of Nathan Tyson when I was promoted to the Premiership. He was the only player who scored in double figures for me the season prior but at Premiership level he was woeful.

The club is bigger than the player.

I'm as ruthless as they come... I turn over my squads yearly especially if im gaining succesive promotions. Does that mean I don't feel a twinge of sadness at letting my ex star player go? Of course not, but if he is not up to the standard of the next level what point is there in keeping him? Sell him and bring some fresh talent in... if the fans get upset they will get over it when your new signing tears up the league!

Thanks for your responses. I've been a little ruthless. I've arranged for a January transfer window 1k swoop for another player, but my club hero.... i will keep him until the end of next season when his contract expires, playing a game here and there or an occasional sub appearance, before letting him slip off into the night.

All this counselling has helped :-)

... when you get promoted but realise your star player in the old division cannot hack it at the next level. You want them to so badly but it just doesn't happen.

After 10 years of trying I have got Leganes into Liga adelante and my warhorse of a striker Juan Alonso, so prolific for me before, looks woeful and has 0 in 15. I'm going to give him some grace until the transfer window (i kind of have to really) and then i'm torn. I'm obviously going to spend my 2,500pound budget on someone, anyone... but do i keep him on for old times sake (5 years of service - only 24 years old?) and loan him to teams in need or do i coldly cut the cord and cast him into a bleak netherworld of lower league inescapable Spanish 3rd tier football?

Help!

I had a similar situation with Luke Hoyte, a young fullback who came through my youth academy. Somehow, he managed to play at every level during my rise through the leagues with St. Albans City, despite being out of his depth at around Championship level. I gave him a few games in the Premier League just because, I wanted him to experience it, and he even got an FA Cup winners medal. In the end though, I had to let him go. He played out a few years at Huddersfield and somewhere else (can't remember now) before I decided to buy him back in his old age. I loaned him out to Luton Town for a while towards the end of his career and then, eventually, he retired and joined my backroom staff.

Here is his career biography:

Febian Brandy, an absolute beast for my Chelmsford City side in FM10. Got us from the BSP to the Premier league, but just couldn't cut in the prem and his wages had gotten out of control. I kept him until the end of the season when his contract ran out, then he moved on to Lille in France, never cut it there either, dropped down to the French second division, when I took pity on him. I brought him back at 34, with a much smaller contract than he had when he left and he was happy to play just 3 games a year until retirement, when he became the worst coach I've ever seen. I still let him take charge of the youth team though.

In a way, it's nice to let these players go and then bring them back in their old age, a bit like Robbie Fowler at Liverpool a few years back.

It's nice to let them go so that they can play some first team football elsewhere and continue their career. Later, you can bring them back to your club!

Then, upon their return, you can bring them off the bench for an emotional return, and then aim to keep them at the club to join the backroom staff when they retire from playing.

Ben Rhodes, an AMR and prolific goalscorer, was with me on our rise from L2 to prem were he failed miserably, although by now he was 30, so i sold him to Cardiff for £1m. Just resigned him as a coach and i now sleep a lot better at nights.